Following the shepherd and discerning His voice

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God has called us sheep in the Bible (Isaiah 53:6) and when God uses that to describe us, it is not a compliment. Sheep are by nature, dumb and clueless animals. There are many references in the Bible that uses "sheep" to describe us... (Ezekiel 34:6 -31, Matt 9:36, Mark 6:34). And Jesus calls Himself our Good Shepherd. (John 10: 1-18)

Now sheep being naturally dumb, tends to bump around like a headless chicken if we do not have a guide to lead us. But Jesus calls Himself our Good Shepherd, we are the sheep of His pasture and those belonging to Him can recognise His voice (John 10:26 - 29), He is the way the truth and the life.  (John 14:6)

The only way we can recognise His voice is unless we spend time with Him on a regular basis, listening and talking to Him. It all boils down to our relationship with the Lord and how closely we desire to walk with Him. The more time we spend with Him, the easier it will be for us to identify and recognise His voice and discern between Him and the Deceiver!

We all know about the famous story about the Pipe Piper of Hamelin… He blew his pipe and all the mice in town followed the music. The Pipe Piper led them to the river where the mice just followed blindly and subsequently one by one landed into the river and they all drowned. The Pipe Piper returned to the town Mayor to collect his reward,  but because the Mayor didn't honour his promise, the Pipe Piper blew a different tune and it attracted all the children after him, leading them into somewhere, where they eventually got lost forever, except for one lame boy who got left behind because he was not able to catch up with the rest.

Like the children and the mice in the story, if we just follow the crowd blindly because everyone is heading for that direction, we would all be in trouble. We need to keep our eyes focussed on our Shepherd and stay close to the flock and we are reminded always to be aware of wolves in sheep's clothing (false prophets - Matt 7:15, Matt 24:4-5,24.) In the preceding verse of Matthew 7:15, verse 13-14 says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad, that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."

We need to be careful where we are heading and who we are listening to… Are we following the voices of the world or are we following the voice of our shepherd? God speaks to us in a still small voice, and because of that, we need to learn to be silent and still before Him in order that we are able to discern and listen carefully to what He is saying.

Are we allowing the distractions and the temptations of the world to cloud and block His still small voice? Remember Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit warned the leaders in Acts 20:28-30 saying, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them." (In current context, be aware of Prosperity Gospel and Hyper-grace messages.)

What is God speaking to you about right now? What is your response? May we always be in constant prayer and communion with the Lord. Don't follow the crowd blindly, listen to the voice of our Shepherd! Remember the warnings about the narrow and the wide gate and about the false prophets! Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

God bless!

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King

Bodily function - spiritual implications

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Bodily function - spiritual implications

The Bible tells us that we are made in God's image (Genesis 9:6) and that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). We are also taught that in Him, we live and move and have our being, for we are His offspring. (Acts 17:28)

Having read the above Scriptures, what is the spiritual implication on us? In order to answer that, let us take a look at our physical body and study it in parallel to the scriptures. But before that, note that there is one commonality in all the above 3 verses… They all point us to the fact that life is meaningless without God - our source of life!!!

We were all created in His image for His purpose… 

Now let us examine our physical body… 

1) We are given a heart - 

God made us in His own image to fellowship with Him and to have communion with Him. Because God created us, we all have a natural void in our heart that can only be filled and satisfied by the One who created it. We are to open it and allow Him to come in to fill us, to have fellowship with Him, to worship Him, to love Him… 

2) We are given eyes - 

We are given eyes to see the things which God have created, we all have spiritual eyes to see the works of God in our lives. Open up your eyes to see what God is doing!

3) We are given a nose

We have nose to breathe oxygen to keep us alive! Without it, we cannot survive.  If our nose are blocked, we cannot breathe properly. God gave us life to enjoy the things we have, appreciate them before it is taken away from you!

4) We are given mouths -

We have a mouth…. What for? If we cannot see, or feel, or smell, we have mouth to use to open and ask God for it. Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you. (Matthew 7:7) We use our mouth to sing His praise and declare God's goodness, to speak blessings on one other. 

5) We are given ears - 

We all have ears. After we have opened our mouths to ask for something, open our ears to hear what He has to say to us… Listen to the Spirit's prompting!

6) We are given legs and hands - 

What do we do after listening to God's voice? We need to act on it. Use our legs to walk in them, and use our hands to do what needs to be done.

7) We are given brains - 

Finally, last but not least, we all are given brains. God did not make us into mindless robots. We are given brains to process, think, study and than finally choose and decide what we want to do with all we have been given. 

We all have a purpose and it begins and ends with Christ!

God bless you!

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;

Princess Michelle -

Beloved Daughter of Most High King

Beyond it all

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Behind this smile
Hides the pain you've never knew I was in
Behind the laughter
Are tears you've never seen

Beyond the pain, my heart can bear
A yearning desire for one who will love and care
Beyond the fear, and doubt that lies within
I seek the One, whom my eyes have not seen

Though my eyes seen Him not,
My heart has felt Him near
Though many words others have said to me
His words of love and truth I hold most dear

Beyond all the struggles, I face in life
Beyond all the disappointment, I continue to fight
Beyond all the darkness, failures and human fault
Is a steadfast love I behold that fails me not

Written by Michelle Yee

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King

The Old Testament God verses the New Testament God - Are they the same or different?

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How many gods does the Christian faith has? Is it 1, 2 or 3? Answer - we only have one God! Some would wonder than if the God of the old testament is the same as the God of the new…. Well, in this blog, we will answer this question..

I'm currently doing a one year Bible reading plan covering both the old and the new testament, and have just recently finished reading the book of Exodus and co-currently reading the book of Matthew. I was initially quite appalled by the fact that God commanded death/violence for so many occasions. (Exodus 21: 12-36). Whereas, in the new testament, we don't see that happening. In fact, quite a stark difference, we have a peaceful, gentle and loving one as demonstrated by Jesus. Initially, when I read the account in Exodus where God apparently appears to be so violent, I had problems reconciling the two together. Yet as I ponder, I realised and remembered what I was taught last time - The New Testament is the Old Testament fulfilled, therefore the Old and New Testament God is the same.

In the old testament, the people were given the law of God, by God Himself through Moses, and they were required to follow them. Because God is a just and Holy God, He cannot let sin go unpunished, and since at that time, there was only God and his people. Therefore, when they did wrong, they had to pay for their own sins (because that was and still is the penalty - "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 6:23). And as there wasn't any one at that time who is able to atone for them, except for the animal sacrifice which was done by the priest once annually. This, however, was only a temporary measure, since it has to be done on a yearly basis.

Now fast forward to the new testament, where Jesus is now in the picture. Jesus himself said that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it (Matt 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.) Jesus was God in the flesh (John 1:14), Jesus was God's own son (John 3:16) And only a sinless man like Jesus (Hebrews 4:16) can atone for the sin of others - the sinner is not able to atone for himself or for someone else that's why an animal atonement was required in the old testament. This is however, unnecessary in the new testament because of Jesus. God had made Him (Jesus) the object of the wrath we deserve. "God made him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might have the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Therefore, Jesus, became the "sacrificial lamb" by which His blood, all mankind were saved, making Christ the only way to salvation. Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) As all of judgement due to us were poured on Christ, when He went to the cross, we no longer see "death threats" as sin requires in the new testament as compared to the old, except for two instances in the book of Acts in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3-10) and King Herald (Acts 12:20-22). Death is still the penalty for sin, but now it is no longer the just physical death but a spiritual one. (A soul that is away from God for eternity).

We have just learnt that the old testament God is the same as the new testament. Now some will start to ask, about the Holy Spirit? Christian worship the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Some mistaken this as 3 different gods, but they are actually the same. Just like we have learnt that Jesus was God in the flesh (being the 2nd person in the Holy Trinity) The Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the Holy Trinity as demonstrated in Acts 5:3-10 in the death of the Ananias and Sapphira. The Holy Spirit was given to the followers of Jesus Christ as a promise by Jesus Himself after His resurrection from the death and before His ascension into heaven and it was also a mark of identity and empowerment for those who are in Him. (Acts 1:4,8)

Now back to the main question - Is the old testament God different from the new testament God? Nope, they are one and the same! And how many gods does the Christian faith have again? Just one! "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one." (Deuteronomy 6:4).

God bless you!

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King